WSL Enters Digital Partnership with Facebook

January 31, 2018

New year, new partnerships.

Last week, WSL and Facebook announced that they’ve teamed up “to deliver the world’s best surfing to even more people.” With 1.37 billion daily active users (as of September 2017), it does seem like the logical choice to reach a bigger audience.

The deal, which is worth $30 million (and WSL’s most lucrative deal yet), gives the tech giant the exclusive digital rights to broadcast WSL events for two years. This means that if you want to watch the CT, QS 10,000, and Big Wave World Tour live, you have to head over to Facebook and not the WSL website beginning this year. The heat analyzer, though, will stay on the app and the website.

This was not the first time that the two worked together. Back in 2017, Facebook had a non-exclusive right to air the competition on their platform, and that pulled in nearly 14 million viewers. “The exclusivity of this deal will elevate the profile surfing and the WSL have within the Facebook platform,” says WSL CEO Sophie Goldschmidt.

And because WSL is moving to Facebook and not going down the proposed pay-per-view route, content will stay free. “This is game-changing for the sport in many ways and, with current and new fans front of mind, we can retain the free offering to fans,” Goldschmidt said in a press release.

This move is just one of the many changes that WSL has been undergoing (e.g. schedule changes, new events, etc.) and with the year just starting, there may be more coming the surfing community’s way.